The Holy City Zoo, which called itself "the comedian's clubhouse",[1] was a small but influential comedy club in San Francisco that operated from the mid-1970s[2] to the mid-1990s.
The club got its name from a sign the first owner, Robert Steger, picked up for free at a going-out-of-business sale at the local zoo in Holy City, California.
Initially, the Zoo continued to host folk music five nights a week and remained closed on Sundays.
San Francisco comedian Tony DePaul approached Reines with the idea of introducing stand-up comedy as an additional form of entertainment.
With comedian Tony DePaul's strong promotion and emceeing skills, the Zoo achieved recognition at the national and international levels.
The Zoo was a "clubhouse" of sorts for comedians; it was the destination for many after a gig to hang out, gossip, drink, complain about the business, and perhaps catch a glimpse of some big-time headliner working on new material (most notably, Robin Williams,[6] "who used the club as his neighborhood rehearsal space"[3]).
In the later years, Holy City Zoo had been co-owned by Bob Fisher and Jim Samuels, the latter being the 1982 winner of the San Francisco International Comedy Competition.
[3] On January 18, 1996, the club was temporarily revived as the non-profit "The New Zoo" for weekly open-mic nights on Thursdays at its original location (now called Seaport Tavern).